A doctor, a police officer, and a pharmaceutical assistant were gunned down at a Chicago hospital Monday in what police are calling a “despicable act of violence.” The Mercy Hospital gunman… US News Summaries.
(Newser)
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A doctor, a police officer, and a pharmaceutical assistant were gunned down at a Chicago hospital Monday in what police are calling a “despicable act of violence.” The Mercy Hospital gunman was also found dead, though it’s not clear whether he was shot by police or took his own life. Police say the rampage at the hospital on the city’s South Side began around 3:30pm in a parking lot, where the gunman was involved in an argument with a woman he was in a relationship with, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Police say the gunman shot emergency room doctor Tamara O’Neal, 38, several times with a handgun and was standing over her when officers arrived. He fired at police before entering the hospital.
Police say the gunman exchanged fire with officers including Samuel Jimenez as they pursued him into the building. Jiminez, a 28-year-old father of three young children who had been on the force less than two years, was killed. The gunman also killed Dayna Less, a 25-year-old pharmacy resident who had just exited an elevator, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told reporters Monday night. Survivors say the gunman appeared to be shooting people at random and there was “mass chaos” before they found out he was dead. Sources tell the Chicago Tribune that the shooter, whose name has not yet been released, had a concealed-carry permit. Chicago “lost a doctor, pharmaceutical assistant, and a police officer, all going about their day, all doing what they loved,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, per the AP. “This just tears at the soul of our city. It is the face and a consequence of evil.” (Read more Chicago stories.)
